Packaging machines are frequently used to automatically wrap film about product, such as trayed food items. The packaging machines typically include a film gripper that grips and pulls the film from a roll of film, side clamps that grip the film, and folders that fold the film underneath the product. Various control systems and sensors may be employed, for example, to control operation of the gripper and to sense product location. The sensors may detect tray size and other tray characteristics, such as food height, lip height etc., and use the detected characteristics to select an appropriate “wrapbox” for the product. As used herein the term “wrapbox” refers to a set of predefined wrap parameters that will be used by the machine in wrapping a product that is identified to that wrapbox. For example, each tray size handled by the machine may include its own wrapbox, enabling the machine to achieve a more optimum wrap for that tray size.
In some circumstances it may be desirable to opt out of the predefined wrapbox that would normally be selected based upon the sensing system of the machine. It would also be desirable to be able to readily transfer predefined settings from one machine to another, particularly within a given store and/or store chain.
Due to variances in the manufacturing process, it would also be desirable to provide a machine capable of automatically taking such variances into account, thereby resulting in better consistency of wrap as between different machines.
Once the appropriate set of wrapping parameters have been determined with the use of one machine, it is desirable to be able to transfer this list of wrapboxes to other machines. However, in the prior art, the transferability of these parameters to other machines is limited. If the wrap profile needs to be moved from one machine to another, it requires sending multiple screen captures of the parameters to the thermal labels of the machine's label printer. These labels are then adhered to pages in a notebook or 3-ring binder and are hand-carried to the destination machine. These labels are now at risk of damage from heat, weather or aging conditions The parameters on the labels are then hand entered into the console of the wrapping machine, introducing possible errors as they are typed in one by one. This process could take up to 15 minutes. If multiple destinations are getting the timings, the labels will have to be photo copied or the loading will be done one machine at a time. It would be desirable to provide a method of convenient transfer of wrap parameter adjustments between machines through a process less subject to error as a result of age, heat, or weather than previously available.